Using the vim editor in Linux to quickly encrypt and decrypt files

Any time you have a text file on a Linux system that you want to keep private regardless of the privileges that other users with accounts on the system may have, you can resort to encryption. One easy way to do this is to use a feature that is built into the vim editor. You will have to provide a password that will you then need to remember or store in a password safe, but the process is straightforward. The file name will not be changed in any way, and the content of the file can be recovered in much the same way that it was encrypted.

To begin, let’s say that we have a file that begins like this:

$ head -3 mysecret
I feel the need to put my deepest darkest secret into a text file on my Linux
system. While this likely isn't common practice, I'm not sure that I can trust
anyone with it. But a penguin? That's a different story! So here goes ...

Now, not wanting to risk your deepest darkest secret to fellow users, you use vim with its -x (encryption) option.

$ vim -x mysecret

The vim editor will immediately ask for an encryption key. You will have to enter it twice. Note that the password will not be displayed as you type it. Instead, each character will be displayed as an asterisk.

Enter encryption key: *********
Enter same key again: *********

Once vim has then opened your file, it looks normal and you can continue editing or adding details to your deep dark secret should you want to do so or simply move on to writing out the file in encrypted form.

To write out encrypted content, simply save the file as you would normally do with vim.